Friday, October 24, 2014

Mailer highlights Jason Rapert's record; Acxiom founder joins in

PAGE ONE: This mailer has two more pages, which you can see on the jump.

Arkansas Women Vote, an independent voter education group, is going to do some educating of voters in Sen. Jason Rapert's district with a mailer going out today. We announced the formation of this group in September. Its leaders are familiar progressive political figures.

Is the incumbent Republican beatable by Democratic challenger Tyler Pearson? Rapert thinks not, no matter how outrageous his remarks happen to be. Pearson has run an energetic campaign with lots of volunteer help. And he's gotten some important mainstream support, such as this letter today in the Log Cabin Democrat from Jerry Adams, one of the retired founders of Acxiom, a huge part of the Conway economy:

We moved to Conway in 1973 from Dallas. I came to Conway to help start what turned out to be Acxiom. I spent 34 years at Acxiom — retired in October 2007. I have grown up in Conway, and I have fallen in love with Conway through my involvement in many of the wonderful civic minded organizations that are a part of the fabric of our community. That is why I feel the need to speak out about the state Senate race between Jason Rapert and Tyler Pearson.

In 2008, I started a second career that outs[sic, I bet this is typo for puts] me on the campuses of the five research universities in Arkansas as well as in many of the corporate headquarters in Arkansas. I continue to be very proud of Conway, and the state is very impressed with the leadership that has helped drive the success of Conway — there are many positive factors that have helped drive a successful Conway.

I can’t tell you how many times in the past few years I have been asked the question, “in such a progressive, successful community like Conway — how was Jason Rapert elected to rerpresent Conway — it doesn’t make sense.” I don’t have a good answer. We have built a thriving community by having leaders who build consensus, represent all of our citizens and take the long view of progress. Divisive leaders, narrow thinkers, combative, confrontational leadership had had no part of what has taken place in Conway.

So I, like many of my friends, want to support a candidate, Tyler Pearson, who will work diligently to represent all of the citizens of our community and take a positiove, collaborative, inclusive approach rather than put forth a narrow, personal agenda that divides our community and our state.

Hillary Clinton's campaign for president illustrates again the double standard applied to women. Some writers get it. They even find the supposedly unlikable Clinton inspiring.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that an ethics complaint has been filed saying that the exploratory committee Rep. Warwick Sabin created to prepare for a run for Little Rock mayor was a subterfuge to avoid the city ordinance that doesn't allow campaign fundraising to begin until five months before the November 2018 election.Of course it is.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson apparently felt the burn from KARK's exclusive Tuesday night on his plans to cut state support of War Memorial Stadium in half beginning July 1, 2018. He has a so-far secret plan to make the stadium self-sustaining. We bet that doesn't include state support.

The State Police say Brett McCullough, 52, of Hot Springs, was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding a bicycle about 8:47 p.m. Wednesday on Highway 70 West (Airport Road) in Hot Springs.

Arkansas Court of Appeals Judge Bart Virden of Morrilton, who narrowly survived attack ads by an outside partisan group supporting his opponent for re-election to a nonpartisan seat, doesn't intend to let the matter drop.

KFSM reports that the Benton County Election Commission will recount votes today in two squeaky state House races where incumbents are currently on top by scant margins.

The Arkansas Supreme Court continues to grapple, with divisions, on how to square new federal and state law on resentencing people who got life without parole sentences for capital crimes committed when they were minors.

Enjoy these photos from today's dedication and re-installation of a new Ten Commandments monument. The first iteration of the monument was installed last June but destroyed within the next 24 hours when it was rammed by a man in a Dodge Dart.